Nature 6 Heather 0

I feel like I am trying to collect data in the midst of plagues. First, there were the hornets and now it's ravens. What's next? Frogs? Flood? 

A couple of days ago, I put out livers at my collection sites and went back about 90 minutes later to check them. I discovered that one of my sites was ransacked by a raven. My third son heard it cawing outside and texted me, but I didn't go check. There's always birds outside. My husband saw a raven flying around, but again, there are always birds flying around. We often have hawks, vultures and even a pair of duck stealing bald eagles in the trees around the house. Grey herons drink from our pond. The roosters are always cock-a-doodle doo-ing. Bird noises outside aren't abnormal. I should have gone to see what was going on. 

I wasn't using tent stakes or weighting the baskets because they are on our land and nothing has bothered them up to this point. My chickens and even the geese leave the baskets alone. But, ravens are pretty smart and now I have to weigh the baskets down. I did that the next day. 

Challenge accepted, said the raven  It simply used its bill to pull the bowl containing the liver to the side of the basket and pulled the liver through the squares on the side. I go to check the site, which looks undisturbed and the liver is gone!

 My low-tech solution, which seems to be working thus far, is to add another basket on top of the first and twist it so that the rectangle holes in the basket are smaller. Then I add a weight to the top of the baskets so they can't be picked up and moved. And I am also watching out the window like Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny. 

There isn't as much colonization happening because of the hornets, but I've found that if I create orifices in the liver, it gives the flies some place to hide and lay eggs. Most days, I get some data from at least one or two of my three sites. Here's some photos...

Add yellow jackets to the list of plagues that have already occurred. Fortunately, so far, there haven't been too many of them and they are happily eating the liver. They do fly out when I lift the basket and circle my head. I spritz them with water and they mostly leave me alone. It won't be long. I'm sure before I write in my blog that I've been stung by a yellow jacket or a hornet.  Not looking forward to that.